Diane’s Story of Living Life with Breast Cancer
accept what I cannot have and I remain grateful for what I do have, little as it may seem to other people. I am truly a wealthy woman filled with the riches of love and friendships that will last even when I am gone.
I have gone into some of the Breast Cancer Sites and read some of the stories from survivors, but I really never did see one that came close to the 4-year struggle that my case has challenged me with. I also found that in most cases it is all very upbeat and positive stuff, as most of it should be to keep you from never losing hope. The reality is that as far as my world has come in research and DNA manipulation and cloning and all of that, we are still dying from this disease every day. The truth is that this is a very humiliating, debilitating, painful and demoralizing way to die and it is still happening too much. I know that people only want to hear the good positive stuff that keeps the fears at bay and allows that ray of hope to always shine through. We need a lot of that encouragement so that people can live with this, but we aren't all going to be that fortunate to see our miracle in this lifetime. Those of us who are losing the battle do deserve to be remembered for all the smiles we gave through our pain and all the cheers we sent out to someone who needed encouragement, when we needed the most. For all the times when our response to our friends and family when they would ask us how we were doing today would be "good" when is was most likely very bad. For all the times we tried to brighten someone else’s life when our own was becoming very dark. For all the times we pushed our bodies to the limit to help make special memories that we could all hang on to when that was all that would be left. For all the times we didn't tell people how bad it was because we didn't want to ruin their day too. For just doing the very best that we knew how to be a good human being, a good friend, a good parent and a good spouse in the short time that we had to accomplish that. Lastly for the courage to fight until the fight is over and to do our best to insure that everything that could make the transition for our families to a life without us as painless as it can ever be so they will be taken care of as they deserve to be while trying to go on with their lives.
